Council Agenda - City of Burbank

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Agenda Item - 4

 

 
                                       Burbank Water and Power

                                               MEMORANDUM
 
 

 

DATE: September 26, 2006
TO: Mary J. Alvord, City Manager
FROM: Ronald E. Davis, BWP General Manager
SUBJECT:

A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF THE MUTUAL ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT (ELECTRIC AND NATURAL GAS) BY AND AMONG MEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA UTILITIES EMERGENCY ASSOCIATION (CUEA)

 

PURPOSE

 

Staff is recommending that the Burbank City Council (Council) adopt a Resolution to approve the attached Mutual Assistance Agreement Among Members of the California Utilities Emergency Association (CUEA Agreement).

 

BACKGROUND

 

Municipal utilities have long recognized the value of mutual assistance (also referred to as mutual aid) agreements. There are mutual aid agreements among neighboring utilities (Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena; and Anaheim and Riverside) as well as agreements between certain utilities in the greater Los Angeles area with certain utilities in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

 

Burbank Water and Power (BWP) had entered into three mutual aid agreements in the late 1980s and early 1990s:

 

  • On September 1, 1987, the Council approved a mutual aid agreement for water and electric utility assistance among the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena (Council Resolution No. 22,118), which superseded an informal August 1972 agreement among the General Managers of the cities� water and power utilities. The earlier agreement had been used only once, on behalf of Pasadena in 1980; and the later agreement has also been used only once, on behalf of Pasadena during a severe windstorm in 2000.

  • On June 21, 1990, the cities of Burbank, Glendale, Los Angeles, and Pasadena, as members of the Southern California Utility Power Pool (SCUPP), adopted a mutual aid agreement for electric assistance, primarily transmission and power supply. However, Los Angeles has proposed dissolving SCUPP.

  • On December 22, 1992, the Council approved a mutual aid agreement for electric utility assistance among the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena; and among the Bay-area cities of Alameda, Palo Alto, and Santa Clara (Council Resolution No. 23,798). By November 1998, the cities of Anaheim and Riverside; and Trinity County and Hetch Hetchy Water and Power had also joined. This Los Angeles area-Bay area agreement has never been exercised. (The 1994 Northridge Earthquake was not severe enough within Burbank, Glendale, or Pasadena to trigger assistance from the Bay area munis.)

Recently, BWP and other municipal utilities belonging to the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) reviewed their mutual aid agreements. Staff concluded that:

  • There is an ongoing need for a mutual aid agreement that can call on assistance from utilities outside the Los Angeles area in case an earthquake or other regional disaster prevents local utilities from assisting each other.

  • The current 1992 Los Angeles area-Bay area agreement has never been exercised, and all the signatories in 1992 and 1998 have since left. Trying to exercise this agreement today would likely result in a lot of administrative confusion. (Burbank can withdraw from this agreement by giving each of the other parties 30 days� prior written notice.)

  • The SCPPA utilities should join the California Utilities Emergency Association, a proven statewide mutual assistance agency whose mission is to �ensure the members of the association are better prepared to respond to, and recover from, a localized emergency or statewide disaster with minimal disruption.�

At their September 2005 meeting, the SCPPA Board reviewed staff�s findings and recommended that SCPPA members join the California Utilities Emergency Association (CUEA). Burbank has joined the CUEA, but needs to obtain Council�s approval before the CUEA Agreement can go into effect.

 

ANALYSIS

 

Utilities should have a standardized, region-wide mutual aid agreement that can be exercised immediately when needed. The CUEA (www.cueainc.com) offers an up-to-date mutual aid agreement, saving Burbank and other agencies the trouble of having to craft one of their own. Among the salient points of the Agreement are:

  • BWP would not be obligated to provide assistance, nor would other parties be obligated to provide assistance to BWP.

  • The party making the request is responsible for reasonable costs and expenses of the responding party�s assistance. These include labor and overhead, travel and lodging, vehicles, equipment and materials.

  • The party making the request indemnifies the party providing the assistance. 

  • Any party can withdraw from the Agreement after 30 days� notice to the other parties.

Also, CUEA members have access to the resources of the State of California through the Office of Emergency Services.

 

Besides Burbank, other SCPPA utilities have joined, including Anaheim, Azusa, Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Riverside. Up north, Palo Alto, Redding, Roseville, and Silicon Valley (formerly Santa Clara) have joined CUEA.

 

Adopting the Agreement with CUEA does not preclude special arrangements like the three-city mutual aid agreement among Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena. However, it probably makes unnecessary the existing mutual aid agreement between four of the SCPPA munis in the Los Angeles area and three munis in the San Francisco Bay area.

 

FISCAL IMPACT STATEMENT

 

Burbank�s CUEA membership is $670 per year, and represents a cost-effective way to have mutual aid available on a statewide basis.

 

RECOMMENDATION

 

Staff recommends that the Council approve the attached Mutual Assistance Agreement (Electric and Natural Gas) Among Members of the California Utilities Emergency Association. If Council concurs, the appropriate action would be a motion to adopt the Resolution entitled �A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF THE MUTUAL ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT (ELECTRIC AND NATURAL GAS) BY AND AMONG MEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA UTILITIES EMERGENCY ASSOCIATION�.

 

GLS:jg

L:\City Council\Staff Reports\2006\Assistance Agreement CUEA.doc

 

Attachment

 

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